Want a hand? Titus asked.
What he really means is ‘can I come, too?’ Magnus clarified with a grin.
No, I’ve got it, Liam said.
The first man came at him without warning, swinging a meaty fist at Liam’s face. Liam stepped effortlessly to the side, then grabbed the man by the back of his head and slammed it into the bar, making the mugs and glasses jump and rattle from the impact before the man slumped onto the ground.
Two more came at him, one grabbing a nearby beer bottle and breaking it to create a makeshift weapon as they charged.
Glass. How pathetic.
Liam just kicked the first in the gut as he came forward, sending him flying back into the table they had come from and upturning it. The second, with the broken bottle in his hand, he grabbed by the wrist, then punched him hard in the nose. With a loud crack, the man tripped backward, then crumpled onto the ground as he held his face.
But as the rest of them all lurched forward in unison, Liam became vaguely aware of a thin, green mist in the air, filling the room like tinted cigarette smoke as he punched faces and crushed bar furniture on the attackers. And with that came an odd sensation at the back of his neck, tingling like a bug crawling on skin, a sixth-sense sort of insight into something ominous and nearby.
“Everyone stop!” a man’s voice shouted into the room, commanding and incredibly pissed off.
All at once, everything stopped, as if the entire world had been frozen in time. Liam’s muscles all froze, his fist mere inches from a guy’s cheekbone.
Conversations stopped mid-sentence. Raised glasses poured their contents all over their unmoving, non-drinking owners. Everyone stayed in place, unable to speak or shift even slightly.
And out of the corner of Liam’s eye, he saw a tall, blond man come through the door to the bar, striding like a pompous asshole and glaring furiously with piercing green eyes.
Dammit, the emerald dragon had found them.
The fun was over.
Aegis, the emerald dragon, cursed the day he’d agreed to take this assignment and watch over the metal dragons as they adjusted to society.
He paced angrily in his office, fuming with rage, and stopped only when he heard a loud knock at the door.
“Come in,” he said sharply, ready to punch whoever came through the door first.
Especially if it was Liam.
Aegis should never have had to track the metal dragons down, only to find their leader brawling like a maniac with a group of human men.
Magnus had tried to explain their captain had only been doing it to protect a woman being harangued by some drunkard, but that didn’t change the fact that Aegis had needed to use his powers to stop the fight and later erase everyone’s memories of the occurrence.
Which he wouldn’t have had to do if they hadn’t been there in the first place.
The door opened and the citrine dragon, with his long brown hair, champagne-colored eyes, and infuriatingly calm demeanor, walked in, taking a seat by the door.
A second later, Aegis’s mate, the opal dragon, with her long black hair and shimmering beauty, glided in after him.
Aegis felt his blood pressure drop a few degrees, if only for the sake of not throwing a temper tantrum in front of his wife.
“You know, you’ve got to stop erasing people’s memories like that,” Citrine said coolly, as if commenting on the weather. “It’s dangerous.”
“What did you expect me to do? The metal dragons were acting like Neanderthals again.” Aegis fumed, pacing again.
Opal, who had made herself comfortable in the oversized leather chair at the head of Aegis’s desk, just watched him, both concern and amusement in her gaze as he walked in circles.
“Aegis, you’ve got to stop worrying so much,” she said, the sound of her voice more soothing than any earthly food or drink.
“Worried? Ha, I’m not worried. I’m angry. Angry with these miscreant dragons. Angry with the oracle for putting me up to this charade. Angry that we haven’t been able to make progress on the mission we’ve been given.”
At that, Opal stood and took one of his hands in both of hers, her soft skin sending calm surging through him.
“You can’t control everything, you know,” she said with a light giggle, the sound charming and a strong reminder of just how lucky he was to have her.
“Yes, I can. And I will,” Aegis insisted.
“Very well. But in the meantime, have a seat.”
At her command, Aegis plopped himself into a chair, and Opal took another seat beside him.
“Have there been any updates from the oracle lately?” he asked.
“None,” Citrine said flatly. “She’s still dealing with things on Pride Island. And with the gem dragons working closely with the regional dragon teams and local shifter groups, things are pretty quiet out here right now.”
“Which means all we have to worry about is finding mates for the metal dragons,” Opal added.
Aegis was starting to lose hope. The Oracle had trusted Liam and his crew so much that she hadn’t even collared them as she had Aegis and his counterparts. And at first, they’d tried letting the crew have total freedom. But one too many incidents had occurred, so Aegis ordered they be sequestered at the castle.
But there had to be some way to help the damn dragons find their mates so they would aid humanity in the fight against evil. Some way without endangering humans and without revealing their identities as dragons.
Reading his mind, Opal offered a suggestion. “How about using a dating service?”
“Too risky. We can’t have their faces and information online somewhere public,” Aegis replied, thinking it out.
“How about setting them up as chaperones for hire or something?”
“Liam and his crew as male escorts? Kill me now,” Aegis said, tasting bile at the back of his throat.
“Well, what are they good at?” Citrine chimed in, always the one to answer a question with another question.
He hated when Citrine did that.
For a moment, they all sat in silence.
“You know, they are pretty good with their hands,” Opal said, snapping her fingers. “Since they’ve moved into this old place, it’s been in better shape than ever.”
Aegis thought about it. Despite the fact that their intermittent brawls with each other had torn the mansion to shreds, the metal dragons had indeed set about fixing the place up since they had come to live with them. There wasn’t a pipe, gasket, heater, or fitting that hadn’t been improved or replaced.
At first, Aegis had just thought it was boredom. But the more he’d seen it, the more he’d realized the metal dragons, particularly Magnus, were just naturally good at figuring out how things worked and fixing them.
Whereas Aegis didn’t even care to know how to change a damn light bulb.
He had more important things to do.